We mentioned earlier that Treasurys were the only reliable safe-haven investments out there, and today’s Treasury auction is Exhibit A.

The Treasury’s sale of $35 billion in two-year note attracted a lot of interest, especially outside the dealer community, booking a bid-to-cover ration of 4.07 — the only reading above four in the last 19 years.

The notes sold at a 0.28% yield, lower than the 0.285% the market expected.

Direct bidders bought 11.2% of the sale, just a tad below the 14.1% average. But indirect buyers, a proxy for foreign interest, scooped up 42.2% of the sale — the highest proportion since February 2010.

The focus now turns to the remaining two sales of the week: $35 billion in five-year notes on Tuesday and $29 billion in seven-year bonds on Wednesday.

Worries about stalling US debt discussions and spreading euro-zone credit risks have served as the Treasury market’s winning proposition for months.

Treasurys have held their gains since the auction, with benchmark 10-year notes up 15/32 in price to yield 1.960%.

The Barbarous Relic, seen by its hard-core fans as a lonely store of value in an uncertain world, has been far from that in recent months, often behaving more like a regular old, blow-your-face-off investment like any other.

As we mentioned earlier, the stock market has gone less than nowhere since the late-October peak inspired by Europe’s still-unfulfilled Plan to Have a Plan.

But not all stocks have been equally ugly.

The least ugly dogs in the ugly-dog contest since October 28 have been dividend-paying stocks, notes Bespoke Investment Group today. This isn’t too shocking, as these stocks tend to be on the defensive side, and investors are hungry for yield with interest rates on debt at rock bottom.

“During times of market turmoil, high dividend payers typically outperform, and that has certainly been the case during the current pullback,” Bespoke writes.

Germany may be bankrolling the European bailout effort, but some things, like its gold, are still off-limits.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman effectively told people to get their sticky fingers out of the gold jar when he dismissed speculation that G-20 leaders discussed using Bundesbank’s gold and currency reserves as way to bolster the European bailout fund.

Coincidentally, gold is once again behaving like a safe haven today, rising as stocks fall.

Comex December gold was recently up $26.00, or 1.5%, at $1,782.10 per troy ounce.

That’s what I said: Gold. The Barbarous Relic is once again selling off just like a risky asset, while other safe havens, such as Treasury debt, rally.

At last check, gold was down 1.4% to $1702 an ounce, while silver was having an even worse day, down 4.3% to $32.88 an ounce.

This is not the first time gold has behaved like a risky asset. Past gold selloffs may have had something to do with investors being forced to sell to cover margin calls, and today might be the same story.

It’s not acting like one today, continuing to rise even as other risky assets gain in a rally fueled by hopes of a eurozone solution.

Readers with long memories and/or the ability to click this link will recall that it was 24 hours ago that gold was rising while risky assets fell on fears that there would be no easy eurozone solution.

That made gold look like a safe haven again, as it has been, off and on, since roughly the Neolithic period.

Not so much now. Tatyana Shumsky explains that the market is starting to grasp that maybe the eurozone solution will involve a giant fire hose of money, which is typically good for gold:

“Whatever they do is going to include an injection of funds into the system,” says Frank McGhee at Intergrated Brokerage Services, which is a boon for gold. “The more money they borrow now, the more likely they are to repay it with devalued dollars or euros later.”

Gold was recently up 1.3% to $1723 an ounce, its highest level in five weeks. Silver was up 1.7% to $33.60 an ounce.

Gold and silver prices are falling again today, which you might expect in a market that seems to be pricing in some hope of an imminent magic solution to all of the eurozone’s problems. Trouble is, gold has been falling lately no matter what the eurozone is doing.

That’s a break from the history of the past year or so, when gold prices have closely tracked eurozone anxiety, with gold serving its traditional role as a safe haven.

It’s not been a safe haven lately, and Julian Jessop at Capital Economics thinks he knows why: The dollar’s been suddenly strong. In a note today he writes he doesn’t see this lasting:

In the recent debate over whether gold is or is not a safe haven, MF Global senior market strategist Adam Klopfenstein is taking the “not” side today.

Gold has lost its “fear barometer” status, as prices are moving inversely to safe haven assets like the dollar and Treasurys, Mr. Klopfenstein says.

“It tells you that the main buyers of gold are no longer looking at it as a place to hedge their risk,” he adds. “There’s a lot of people reassessing the gold trade and wondering if we’ll see the $2,000 level.”

Gold prices had slumped 11% in September, but have since regained their footing, climbing nearly 4% this month along with riskier assets like stocks.

Comex December gold was recently $21.70, or 1.3%, lower at $1,660.90 per troy ounce — tracking declines in the stock market.

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